Discussion #3: Evaluating Your Personal Assist

Directions:

1. Watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAnHjuTQF3M

2. Pick one piece of personal assistant: website, gadget, app, etc. you own or have used

3. By 11:59pm on Monday, write a PIE Paragraph that evaluates whether the personal assistant is making your life better or worse

• You must use two quotes from the ted talk
• You must use quote sandwiches
• Your response should be in PIE Paragraph format

Here is an example for a PIE paragraph.(https://awc.ashford.edu/essay-dev-pie-paragraph.html)

Example: Honestly, if I’m smiling it’s because of those around me. I thrive on social connections and communication, so apps like messenger, discord, video calls, and text give me the chance to maintain those connections without physically being there. In the TED talk, Cynthia Breazeal touched on an interesting concept of robots being used as more advanced communication devices where you can still have that connection. “Me-bots” as she put it, can make you feel like you’re still with your friend in person via video calls connected to interactive robots. (Breazeal) To me, this was incredible to watch. You connect your phone to it, and the person on the other line can lean in to look at something via the robot that picks up their movements. After taking a survey regarding participants and different levels of involvement with the Me-bot, it was revealed that the more interactive the robot, the better connection they felt to the friend on their screen. Cynthia states “the physical, social embodiment really makes a difference” (Breazeal) in terms of how the participants felt on the call. I know apps like Face-Time are popular, and I personally use discord calls and Skype quite often. It helps me feel better when I see the friend I’m talking to, and I personally feel the type of communication-bot described in the video is a big step in staying connected in this big, busy world.